Pollination Station

What’s Pollination?

Pollination occurs when pollinators – think varying insects and animals – carry pollen grains from plant to plant. Pollinators move pollen from the anthers of flowers, which are considered to be the male structure, to the stigma, the female structure. This occurs all within the same plant species and results in a fertilized flower, which assists in a new generation of plants being able to grow.

Plants are broken into two categories, self-pollinators and cross-pollinators. The cross pollinators rely on pollinators to transfer pollen while self-pollinators can do it themselves! While plants rely on pollinators to help create new sprouts, pollinators also rely on plants to live. Plants that need pollination have sugary nectar that gives pollinators a carbohydrate while the pollen itself offers proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals – a biologically active compound found in plants. Therefore, pollination is mutually beneficial for our plants and our pollinators!

Image from: National Environmental Education Foundation

There are more than 200,000 animal species that do this work! Pollinators have existed since flowering plants first appeared, dating back 130 million years ago. The first pollinators were flies and beetles. As far as bees go, scientists have been able to identify around 20,000 bee species. Of these bees, 1/5 of the entire population pollinate flowers in the United States!

Pollination also Benefits Us

We rely on pollinators for a lot of the food that we eat. Around the world, there are about 1,400 crops that produce food and plant-based industrial products. Of these crops, nearly 80% need to be pollinated. Pollinators not only help our food to grow but they can also enhance the flavor and create larger fruits and higher crop yield. As such, pollination is a service worth more than $3 trillion globally. In the US specifically, we’re looking at $10 billion annually. The worth of pollination makes sense when we consider that more than half of the oils and fats we use in the world come from plants that need animal pollination. Similarly, there are over 150 crops in the US that depend on pollinators, which encompasses a lot of fruits and grains.

Even outside of our agricultural process, plants still require pollination! About 80-95% of plant species that are found in natural habitats rely on pollinators.

Pollination and the Environment

While it might seem intuitive that pollination has distinct benefits for the environment because it helps plants grow, it’s a little more complex than that!

Plants produce oxygen, which we know is an element humans need to survive. However, plants also help other plants grow. According to the USDA, pollinators are essential to the growth of wild plants and wild plants, in turn, are essential to the upkeep of existing plant populations. Think of it as a giant circle. Without wild plants, we can expect to see a decrease in our existing plant population – even if we have all of the other necessary plant components (i.e. carbon dioxide, water, sunshine).  

Image from: U.S. Geological Survey

Plants also help to purify water and prevent erosion. This is because plant roots are better able to hold soil in place and the foliage also acts as a buffer to alleviate the impact intense rain could cause. The water cycle as a whole is dependent on plants. Without them, we would have trouble returning moisture to the atmosphere.

The Decline of Pollinators

The reason pollinators are such a big point of conversation in recent years is due to their declining numbers. One way we can gauge how the 5.5 million insect species are holding up is by looking specifically at butterflies, according to an Ohio study. This is mostly because butterflies act as a reflection for the ecosystem as a whole. In the United States, we’ve witnessed an 80-90% decline in monarch butterflies over the last 20 years.

To further round things out, there was a global analysis in 2014 that covered over 400 species of insects. This analysis estimated that insect abundance has dropped 45% over 40 years. Researchers are even making claims that the decline in insect species could lead to insects dying out completely in the coming decades.

At this point, it should be clear that we rely on insects, specifically the pollinator-kind, pretty heavily. Therefore, it shouldn’t be a total surprise that declining insect numbers are representative of ecological catastrophes. E.O. Wilson, a Harvard entomologist (someone who works with insects!), has gone so far as to say that the rest of life, including humanity, would mostly disappear from the land within a few months if we no longer had insects.  

What’s killing our Insects?

Mostly pesticides. However, climate change and habitat loss are also contributing factors.

Image from: The Guardian

A study completed in April of 2019 outlined that 40% of insect species are facing extinction because of pesticide use. This is primarily a result of neonicotinoid insecticides (insecticide is just a type of pesticide that specifically targets and kills insects).

What are Neonicotinoid Insecticides?

Neonicotinoid, or neonics, first popped up in the 1990s and are now the most widely used insecticide globally, with most applications coming from seed coatings. The insecticide is used on over 140 crops in over 100 countries. There are a couple notable features that make neonics especially concerning. The first notable feature is the systemic nature of neonics. Systemic in this case means that the insecticides are water soluble, allowing them to worm their way into the entire plant – from nectar to pollen to fruit. When the seeds are coated, only 5% of the seed coating is absorbed by the plant, leaving the rest to sit in the soil. The problem with having an insecticide like neonics just sitting in the soil is that they don’t break down easily. Some pesticides break down within hours or days, but neonics can hang around for years. The breakdown time, the tendency to stay in the soil, and the water soluble nature all combine to make neonics a potential water hazard. We’ve already seen some evidence that neonics are contaminating streams, ponds, and wetlands.

So when insects make their way onto plants that were treated with neonics, the insects are attacked through their central nervous system. The insecticide causes overstimulation of the insect’s nerve cells, eventually leading to paralysis and death.

What’s most troubling about the use of neonics is that they aren’t even doing much to help farmers so their use is sort of moot. Our agricultural landscape in America is 48x more toxic now – especially to honeybees – than it was just 25 years ago. This is almost entirely thanks to the spread of neonics. Farmers who use neonics are facing 10x the insect pressure and half the profits compared to farmers who opt out of neonics and instead use regenerative farming methods.

Opting Out

Some places are saying no to neonics as a whole. The European Union placed a ban on neonics being used in the fields in 2018. Canada has responded similarly by placing hefty restrictions on neonics in 2019.

Bee Specific

Bees are one of the most widely known pollinators and it seems we’re almost always talking about saving them. For that reason alone, it’s important to know what role bees play for us and what’s really happening to them.

The majority of the pollinating bees that we have in the US belong to large-scale commercial operations, though 90% of beekeepers are hobbyists. This means that bees are being transported to and from different plants so that they can work to pollinate as opposed to having the cycle happen naturally. However, large-scale farms and operations create food deserts for pollinators. This means that pollinators have to travel long distances to secure sustenance. If we didn’t pack up and move the honeybees after the bloom time of crops, the bees would be trapped in areas filled with pesticides, while also leaving behind crops that need pollination all because they can’t reach them.

There are five main reasons bee populations are declining: pesticides (with emphasis on neonics), parasites, poor nutrition, habitat loss, and climate change.

Helping Pollinators

Researchers say that home gardens provide a huge boost for pollinators, while alleviating some of the damage done by habitat loss. To do the most for pollinators, it’s most important to plant native plants. Some researchers are working to come up with lists that detail native plants for home gardeners to plant, the task is quite difficult because plant choices vary so much from pollinator to pollinator. Plus, the nutritional needs of a pollinator change depending on where the pollinator is in its life cycle. However, there is a prevailing recommendation to plant a variety of native plants.

TN Specifics

For Tennessee, there are some leading recommendations.

Image from: HGTV - purple conflower

Gardening expert says the best are: Iris, tea roses, cone flowers, daisies, day lilies, snapdragons, and mint of any kind.

Native trees and shrubs: oak, black cherry, birch, crabapple, blueberry, red maple, pine, hickory, hawthorn, linden, beech, arrow-wood viburham, chokecherry, spicebush, serviceberry.

Top US native perennial flowers (will come back season after season): aster, golden rod, sunflower, joe pye weed, violet, hardy geranium, black-eyed Susan, milkweed, penstemon, phlox, thredlead coreopsis, beebalm, cardinal flower, mountain mint, purple coneflower, columbine, liatris, anise hyssop, sun drops, sneezeweed, culvers root, Indian pinks, and Dutchman’s breeches.

Image from: Fernwood Garden Center - Cinderella milkweed

There are so many opportunities to find seeds at a reduced cost or even at no cost at all! Check for seed swaps in your neighborhood communities, at local gardens, through nurseries! Some libraries, such as the Oak Ridge branch library, even offer seeds for free. Ijams and CAC Beardsley Farm host annual seed swaps.

When we plant for our pollinators, we do best for ourselves.

Alternatively, there are some wonderful organizations that are doing work to secure the safety of our pollinators. Check out Pollinator Pathways and Pollinator Partnership!